


The Things We Hold Dear

by TheHeartFullBlue



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Dreamscapes, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Galra Keith (Voltron), Homesick Lance (Voltron), Hunk & Keith (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Hunk (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Hunk (Voltron) Has Two Moms, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Lance (Voltron) Whump, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Langst, M/M, Matt & Shiro (Voltron) Friendship, Original Character(s), Orphan Keith (Voltron), Protective Keith (Voltron), Protective Shiro (Voltron), Space Uncle Coran (Voltron), Team as Family, holt siblings, maybe later on klance idk yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-04-23 05:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14325831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHeartFullBlue/pseuds/TheHeartFullBlue
Summary: Keith is still with the blade of marmora and Lance is questioning his place on the team. together they need to blow up a base but on the way the meet haggar who puts Lance under in a dreamscape where he is with his family. Keith has to get him home, but what if Lance already is?(i swear this thing is better than the summary)UPDATED VERSION: if you've already read this before i reccomend reading it again. I changed some plot points





	1. estrangement

**Author's Note:**

> So Kuro is not in this story and i will not be exploring him mainly because i wanted this story just for lance and i didn't know what to do with the fake bitch. Just see it as if this is The Real Shiro™ who just needs sleep and a haircut :)  
> Also i love krolia but she isn't in here.

_V. Estrangement is the feeling that you don't belong, especially when you're surrounded by other people. If you've ever had to sit by yourself in a school cafeteria, you'll know what estrangement feels like._

 

 

Lance does.

 

Three people, _three people_ had to go in a Galra base and get out. Lance didn’t know- so automatically didn’t trust- one of them and the other was Keith, and that _really_ speaks for itself.

 “Lance? Are you paying attention?” Allura asked him and he immediately looked up from the ground. Everyone looked at him with questioning faces. He didn’t know how to answer Allura. Should he say he doesn’t understand why Keith would be his partner? Would he ask if Lotor’s intel was correct? Or would he just play this off like he always does?

Unfortunately, Lotor wasn’t with them because he wanted to settle some things in his new “kingdom” but they also couldn’t contact him if they had further questions about what he told the team.

“It’s scary buddy I know” Hunk stepped closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder as a sign of comfort. Hunk never changed, Lance thought. Hunk was still, Hunk, the boy who Lance fought bullies off since they were like 9. They would bully Hunk about all kinds of things: two moms, bigger build than most (he was a big kid) and his kindness made him an easy victim. It actually wasn’t really fighting off bullies, it was more throwing some words and then getting beat up. But every time when the fight was over Hunk would sit next to him to comfort and mainly thank the beat-up kid. And Lance? Lance would always laugh.

Lance remembered this one time, years ago, that he hadn’t come to school. Hunk had been friends with Lance for over 2 years and had been to his house almost 7 times. It was mostly because Lance’s parents and older brother worked, so Lance had to take care of his younger siblings. Hunk told his moms that he wanted to go to Lance’s house to see what was wrong. Of course, they wanted to come too. When they got to his house Hunk knocked on the door and an old lady opened the door. She looked sad, her eyes were swollen and reddish. Hunk’s mom explained who they were, and the old lady identified herself as Lance’s grandmother (or abuela as Lance would refer her to). She let them in and before she could explain herself. Hunk wanted to know where Lance was. There were tears in his eyes, worried for his friend.

Lance’s grandma told him he was in his room, the door at the end of the hall. Hunk hurried up the stairs. When he opened the door to Lance’s room, he saw Lance was sitting on his bed, looking down. There weren’t any tears like there were with his abuela, just an emotionless face. Hunk didn’t say anything, he just sat next to him and put a hand on his back. Minutes passed. Neither of them saying anything. Eventually Lance broke the silence and softly said, “ _mi papá murió.”_ Hunk would later find out that Lance’s father was the victim of a fatal car crash. For a good few seconds both boys let those words sink in and then tears filled the Cuban boy’s eyes and let them stream down his face. He started sobbing loudly. Hunk pulled him closer and hugged him as Lance cried in the 11 year olds arms.

Lance had never told Hunk this, but that was when he knew that Hunk would be his brother. in everything but blood.

“But hey, remember _you_ have Keith to protect you when something goes wrong. I mean, that Galra DNA of him _has_ to come in handy. Since ya’ know you’re going into a Galra base.” Hunk tried to cheer him up.

“Where is Keith anyway?” Pidge asked.

“They will be arriving Number 5, but since this is supposed to be a stealth mission with not a lot of people needed, Keith and the other Galra, O’roacha, will have to come with a smaller space ship to get here,” Coran informed her.

“I don’t like how Lotor knows nothing about the base or who was still going there.” Hunk stated.

“Lotor said he didn’t know about it, maybe its not that important to the war.” Shiro replied to Hunks statement. “But that doesn’t mean its not important to the druids. We all know they have their own agenda.”

The plan was relatively simple. The Blade informed Voltron that a spy of the Galra had retrieved information on a facility that made very dangerous things with the help of druids on the planet Aonian there was a secret Galra base with a dangerous artefact and or weapon in the make. Lance, Keith and the other Galra would have to secretly place bombs and blow the whole place up.

 “I ask of all of you to be careful, this mission may be extremely planned out, but things do not always go according to plan,” Allura told them all.

They needed to be fast in and out. So only a couple of people needed to be fast and seeing how the Red lion is the fastest out of all the machines Lance was the paladin to join and in stealth mode no one would see them. Unfortunately, they also wouldn’t have much time. The stealth mode had a time limit for 1 varga. Witch meant they had to be really fast if they wanted to pull this off without getting the red lion captured.

The rest would monitor everything over the comms and Shiro and Allura would be in the hangars to fly immediately to the planet if they got discovered and needed help

Suddenly the doors to the room slid open. There stood Keith in his Blade of Marmora suit and the other guy O’roacha. He was just as big as all the other Galra Lance had seen but this guy looked more as an animal than the others. It was weird. His eyes were like a those of a lion and although his mouth looked like that of a lion too, it was flatter and closer to his face than an actual lion’s. A lion would be able to rip someone to pieces with a face like that. Could O’roacha? Lance didn’t know, and he felt like he also didn’t want to.

Everyone greeted Keith, Coran greeted his boy and held on to him for a few seconds before letting go, Hunk gave him a big and tight hug. Pidge gave him a somewhat smaller and softer hug (thank god because Keith was out of breath after Hunk’s) Allura clung to Keith’s neck. Shiro gave him a brotherly pat on the back. Lance exchanged looks with Keith and said “nice to see ya’ mullet” Keith just chuckled.

Lance walked up to the lion Galra and said, “You must be O’roacha, my name is Lance, I’m the red and most awesome paladin.” he said, cocky and stuck his hand out for a handshake, but O’roacha just ignored him, looking straight forward.

“is everyone ready?” Allura asked.

Keith, Lance and O’roacha all nodded.

“Then I guess it is time to get in our lions and nail this mission” Lance said. Everyone except for O’roacha smiled at him. They did need some optimism for this.

 

* * *

 

Pidge, Hunk and Coran set up the coms for the three and left for the bridge to see if everything worked correctly and they would scan the area near the planet for any ships or satellites in the sky then, Hunk and pidge would go to Olkari to discuss new weapons they were making.

Now, Shiro and Allura had to get into their lions and be outside the castle to make sure they could be ready for when problems would strike. Because from what Lotor told them, the base _was_ big but they still were not sure if there were fleets of Galra there. If they were to get discovered, they would be outnumbered and would have to wait a few days to make sure the Galra wouldn’t expect them anymore, and then come back with Voltron, the universe’s defender. So Shiro and Allura said their goodbyes and left.

Lance, Keith and O’roacha had to go over their plan since this was the first time the three of them were in the same room together. Well, not really the same _room_ \- they were standing in front of the Red lion- but still.

O’roacha would carry bombs to blow up the facility and had a bag that could carry the artefact. He was the biggest and probably strongest of all three of them. “I will make sure that everything will be in place,” O’roacha added. He had a _deep_ voice, and it almost scared Lance.

Lance would be their getaway pilot and the lookout, who knows there may not be _fleets_ of Galra but there could be a small group of scientists or soldiers protecting the base from the outside.

Keith would go over hacking the Galra base, opening doors, making sure there aren’t any security systems that would compromise them.

None of them said much, especially O’roacha, but all of them knew the plan. Lance felt weird not talking so much. He knew this was a serious situation but not talking made him anxious. So, after a few seconds of silence he asked Keith: “So, Keith, how is the Blade? You learning a lot?”

Keith looked at him as if Lance was crazy. This was a bad time to discuss personal life matters, but Keith just replied, “Umh, yeah, I mean I’m learning a lot about the Galra. I’m practicing some fighting techniques that I couldn’t do before so, err, yeah.. that is interesting.”

Lance just felt the cringe coming off the boy. Bad timing, he knew, but what else was het suppose to do? Just stand there and do nothing? Or ask questions he already knew the answer to about the mission? That last idea wasn’t so bad, Lance thought, but it was already too late for that.

Luckily Coran came to them to say that they had found no Galra Fleets and that it would be safe for the three of them to go now.

So, the three of them went into the Red lion. Keith and Lance did say bye to Coran though. In the cockpit Lance was piloting Red, Keith sat behind him and behind Keith was O’roacha. Lance did find it uncomfortable that O’roacha said so few words. Neither did Keith say anything, but that wasn’t new.

“Galras” Lance mumbled to himself. Lance could see who Keith got it from.

“Does everyone have their seatbelts on?” Lance asked.

No response.

“I’m just gonna take that as a yes, lets go”

So Lance flew right out of the castle and went straight to the planet Aonian.

 

* * *

 

Red flew out of the caslte. They saw the Blue and Black lions as they did.

Lance never got really used to seeing blue out in the open. Before, Lance would be in Blue and now Allura piloted Blue. Now he saw his former lion, the lion he _actually_ wanted to be in. He did feel honoured being the right hand of Voltron, but he and Blue had bonded on an emotional level. Red was still a good lion, and overprotective one. But it just wasn’t the same.

Lance would tell Blue how homesick he was, and she would listen. He remembered one time he couldn’t sleep because of nightmares he had, he felt Blue in his mind asking him to come, so he did. When getting to the hangars he asked her what was wrong, but she just opened her mouth to let Lance in. He wondered if she wanted to fly somewhere. But once he sat down Blue asked him about his family, his _family_ at the time he thought a lot about them but could never tell anyone. Why? Well he thought he couldn’t, that is what he told Blue. So Blue asked questions about his family and earth, she told him that even though she was located on earth, she didn’t know much about it. Lance kind of liked it. He loved talking about his family. He told her stupid stuff he did as a kid, he told stories about his siblings, the kind of stories you would tell your kids when you would be with family.

Eventually Lance started to drift away, slowly falling asleep and then catching himself before he did. His lion told him he could relax, he was allowed to sleep. Lance was happy when she said that, but also sad. He wouldn’t get to talk about his family anymore, but Blue assured him that she would be here when he woke up, and if he wanted he could talk about his family again. She would listen. Lance was so tired that night he just took it. But not before drunkenly saying to his lion “ _gracias Azul_ ” he could barely get those words out his mouth, but he did, and he drifted slowly to sleep, without nightmares this time. When he woke up Blue was right there. Unfortunately Lance also missed the training alarm and was not prepared for the speech Allura gave him. He felt bad, but also better than the night before, thanks to Blue. His lion.

For some reason, Lance didn’t have that with Red. Even though he was his paladin, Red didn’t let Lance all the way in, who knows, it might be Lance’s fault. Would he ever find out?

“We should go in now that we know that there isn’t anyone who can notice us, these things can change over the course of time” O’roacha said in an emotionless voice. Lance almost had a heart attack. He had forgotten O’roacha was there.

“Sounds like a plan,” Lance responded.

So, Lance flew to the planet and landed as softly as he could. Trying to not make any sound. The Red lion was in stealth and they flew out of his mouth. Lance set a timer on his helmet to determine the time.

“Well,” started Keith as they were getting out of Red “No one has attacked us yet” he took a device that looked like a mobile phone out of his pocket “I’m gonna see if I can hack the door wait just a minute.” Keith walked to a huge door that was definitely meant for getting a spaceship in and out of the facility.

O’roacha was carrying the box full of bombs, it looked heavy and it must have been too. Lance was almost impressed but still felt threatened by the Galra. O’roacha had an emotionless face, the face of a soldier.

“So, is that heavy?” asked Lance. He knew the answer, but he just needed to talk. He just needed to speak, joke, flirt and what not. He was anxious but had a way of dealing with it and that was talking.

“It is lighter than I thought it would be” O’roacha responded still looking to the door Keith was hacking. Lance was surprised that O’roacha answered a question he had asked.

“Hey, I think I got it!” Keith yelled.

Lance transformed his bayard into a gun and got ready to shoot anyone they saw. Keith looked at Lance in a way of asking if he was ready. Lance nodded, so Keith pressed a button on his device and let the doors open. The Galra boy walked to were Lance and O’roacha were standing. The doors opened slowly, too slow for Lance’s liking. There could be an army waiting for them or a weapon that would shoot at them as sign that this wasn’t the place to trespass.

But nothing happened. The doors opened and showed a hall, there wasn’t any light to make out anything. But what all three of them could make out was that there was no one, not even weapons on the floor as if people had left in a hurry.

“I’ll see if I can get the lights to work” Keith said, and began to click on his device again. But alas, nothing.

“Maybe the Galra left it?” Lance stated, lowering his gun.

“Could be. it is pretty old, but I hope not.” Keith responded. “We need to check. I need to check everything and still blow the place up. With all the bases we have been blowing up the Galra still could want to get back to their old ones. At least we got a scan of the facility. But this thing is like a maze, it’s just hall after hall.”

“Do any of you have anything that we could use as a flashlight?” Lance asked the two Galras.

“Yeah, I have this cube” Keith said “It’s like those thing on Olkari but these once give a light source” he revealed a small cube, it was dark grey and had purple stripes on all sides

They went in the building and Keith activated the cube, revealing a purple light

“Watch your step” Keith ordered the others. “We might still step on a trap”

“Or this is a trap” Lance said

Keith and O’roacha put on their masks and

And like that three soldiers walked into the belly of the beast, quiet and ready to fight when it would come down to it.

 

* * *

 

Lance almost jumped out of his skin.

After going down a couple of halls and checking a few rooms, he saw a Galra. It was just sitting there, slumped against the wall. He wasn’t close, but a human silhouette with furry ears couldn’t mean much else. His face was pointed right at them.

Lance drew his rifle, ready to fire.

“Stand up and get your hands in the air!” he commanded. He could feel the eyes of Keith and O’roacha burning in his back. _He_ was the one who would take care of these things, but he didn’t even sound threatening. The Galra didn’t do anything, he didn’t even move.

Come to think of it, he didn’t even breath.

“Our orders were to shoot anyone on sight, now do it.” O’roacha commanded. Now that man sounded threatening, deep voice he sounded muscular and knew how to give commands.

“I don’t think he is gonna do anything O’,” Lance said lowering his gun. He started walking in the direction of the Galra, taking the light cube with him.

As Lance began to walk to the Galra he could make out more details of him his suit was like the armour that the Galra’s of Zarkon would wear, but the colour was darker, and this person didn’t have a helmet on. The Galra’ mouth was ajar, and he looked at absolutely nothing- not at Lance, not at the people behind him. His eyes were glowing a dark blue, not the blue of Lance’s armour, nor of the ocean, this blue looked deep, evil. Lance had no idea that blue could look evil, or scary.

It was as if there was no one in his body, just as if only a shell was left of him. No emotion on his face. Just like he was dead.

“Lance, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Keith whispered in an angry tone.

Lance now stood in front of the Galra and could make out more details. His skull jutted out visibly against the skin. This Galra was dried out. He mustn’t have had water in days- heck, maybe even weeks. But... how could that be?

 “Can you hear me?” Lance asked, now sitting on one knee in front of the Galra, he didn’t know why he even asked. the guy was surely not there, but he could _try_.

“Lance what the hell?! You crazy or something?” Keith said, somewhat louder that before.

 _Even when is seems impossible mijo, you must always try, prove others wrong, and if it is you who turns out to be wrong, own it, learn._ That was what his mamá used to tell him. God that made him miss her so much. His mother, the sweetest woman in the universe. The woman who didn’t let the death of the love of her live stop her from saying those things to her children. She told Lance that over a video call in his first month of the Garrison. He was just learning how to fly an aircraft and he just couldn’t trust himself with flying it, especially with Iverson telling him he wouldn’t be good enough to. So his mom told him to prove Iverson wrong, and he did. He succeeded the simulation the day after, going on his instincts. He felt so proud and he was sure his mom would be too. And eventually he got into the fighter class at the Garrison.

But a couple months into fighter class he screwed up. Lance knew. If he could change what had happened, Lance would have never gone out at night to annoy Pidge, he wouldn’t have saved Shiro and see Keith again, he wouldn’t have flown the blue lion off planet earth. He would have done his homework, studied, called his family.

“like I said, he’s not gonna do anything Keith, come look.” Lance responded to Keith. Keith slowly stepped forward and got a better look at the Galra

“holy shit, wh- what happened to him?” Keith exclaimed.

“I don’t know,” Lance claimed, standing up again.

“Is he dead?” Keith asked getting closer to the Galra’s face

“I think so, He looks dried out, but it doesn’t look like it has been years, a month at most. And I think this Galra wasn’t alone when he came here.” Lance said turning to Keith

“Do you think druids did this?” Lance asked Keith.

Lance had gotten used to turning to Keith after he got the lead not long ago. Keith was easy to turn to, the Galra boy might not like talking about his feelings, or his insecurities about himself, or that of the mission. And neither did Lance, so that is what made it easy.

“I honestly have no clue,” Keith told him. He turned to look at O’roacha, who shook his head.

“We never what we were getting into, if this is the cause of that weapon _or_ a druid. We should move fast” O’roacha said calmly, looking at the box he was holding

“Okay,” Keith said, taking a pause to look at his device and scan the map. “There should be a door up ahead. Let’s run for it.”

So they did, _run,_ feet pacing through the hallways, sounds echoing through the whole facility.

They found a door and Keith opened it in a rush, almost breaking it.

Nothing.

It wasn’t new, they had tried a lot of rooms where there was nothing special other than some desk and papers all thrown around. O’Roacha still placed a bomb.

“How many of these rooms have we had already?” Lance moaned.

“This facility is extremely big, Lance, how else did you think this was gonna go?” Keith responded in an annoyed tone.

“Well,” Lance bit back. “This would have gone a _lot_ faster if there weren’t just three of us ya’ know. Seriously, did the Blade really think this would go fast with two humans and a Galra who already has his hands full with this heavy-ass box?” Lance was annoyed, so he was angry. He took that out on Keith, he shouldn’t do that, but he really couldn’t help himself.

“The _three_ of us against druids? How would that go?” Lance looked at the two

Keith looked at him with a frown, almost disappointed in Lance that he had said something it such rage.

O’roacha, however, wasn’t having what Lance said kindly. He growled and said, “The Blade knew this had a possibility of being dangerous, so they send a paladin of _Voltron_ and two of their best soldiers because they trusted us. Now, if you would stop being such a-- “

“Let’s just keep looking” Keith cut him off turning to walk through door behind him.

Lance went past O’roacha, looking him straight in the eye. O’roacha growled again and now showed his teeth. He really was like a lion.

After another 3 rooms or so they came to a long hall with just one door at the end of it, the hall wasn’t small, and neither was the door. They were big enough for everyone to feel small and looked down on.

“Yeaah~, how much do you wanna bet that behind this door is what we’re looking for?” Lance said already pacing to the door.

“Let’s not test our luck, please,” Keith said in an annoyed tone.

“Ah no worries Mullet, let’s just get in here, get the weapon _slash_ artefact and get out of here,” Lance responded boldly.

Keith sighed and he and O’roacha walked to the door slowly.

Lance now stood in front of the door, hand on the handle. For some reason he felt a wave of nausea, a feeling of throwing up, his head felt light and unfocused. He suddenly felt disassociated from the world, as if this wasn’t real.

Wasn’t it? Yeah, no it definitely was. He turned to look at Keith for confirmation.

“What are you waiting for?” Keith asked with a questioning look.

Lance shook his head. Trying to shake that unfocused feeling. It worked, he felt as if a weight had left his mind and more awake than before.

He opened the door and felt a pain burn his eyes

The whole room was full of light.

The whole facility had absolutely no light at all and this whole room was full of it? golden and blue lights blinded the room and now also the hallway they were standing in

Lance’s eyes quickly adjusted to the sudden bright light and he could make out what was standing in the room. The whole room was golden, if it was real gold Lance couldn’t tell it was an alien planet after all maybe gold was more common here than it was on earth.

In the middle of the room there was a glowing purple stone, big enough to have to hold with two hands on a golden pillar in a glass looking case, it had sparks of white and blue flying off of it.

“See Keith, I told you it would be here,” Lance teased Keith, knowing the Galra would be annoyed by it.

Keith just ignored him, as usual, and turned to O’roacha.

“Now I guess it’s your turn” Keith told him.

As Keith said that, Lance again felt dizzy, unfocused and like he was going to throw up. He felt himself breath more heavily and now his head also felt heavy unlike before. Maybe it was the stone, somehow affecting him.

“Does anyone else feel- sick?” Lance asked the two Galra.

“No, why do you?” Keith asked with more concern than Lance had ever heard the boy talk to him.

“Yeah, kind of. I thought it was that stone but if you’re not feeling anything than I guess I must have caught something.”

Keith got closer and looked at him with some concern “You should sleep when we get back then, don’t want you going into battle sick right?” He told him. Lance found it weird how Keith had suddenly become so concerned about him. They were still rivals, right? To be fair, Lance didn’t think the Galra were the nicest to be around when it would come to comfort. So maybe Keith gave it to Lance to also make himself feel better.

“Yeah, I’ll try” Lance gave a small smile to the boy, and for some reason his heart started beating very heavily. It was a weird feeling but somehow also a welcoming one.

Keith walked towards O’roacha, Lance followed him and helped getting the glass off. But then something uncalled for happened

This goddamn thing began to shake.

“Uhm- what the hell?!” Lance exclaimed.

Keith opened his mouth to say something but that was already too late as the stone began to float. Of course, O’roacha tried to catch it before it would do, whatever the hell it would do.

But, as guessed it was too late as the stone flew to the other side of the room. it so fast they were barely able to see it do it.

Everyone looked at the stone in fear, did it have a conscience? Was it alive? But Lance wasn’t having any of it. That’s when Lance realized there was a shadow in the form of a person holding the stone. Lance couldn’t see the eyes of the person, but they definitely focused on the three of them.

“Everybody watch out!” he shouted at the other two.

And Lance heard inhuman laughing, familiar, that of an old woman

“Haggar?” Lance looked to Keith who also knew who he just heard

“Oh,” They all heard Haggar echoing through the room “Before, it was just Galra. But _paladins_ are much more fun to play with.”  she exclaimed followed by a more laughter. Everyone looked through the room and tried to locate her

That’s when Lance saw it. Time seemed to stop. in the cornor of the room was Haggar, holding the stone with both hands, aiming and powering up to hit them. The light of the stone was getting brighter by the millisecond. Haggar shot the stone at them. In those slow moments, Lance made a decision. He got in front of Keith, in the line of fire.

 _Better him than Keith,_ that is what he thought in that moment. Keith was a better soldier, a better fighter than him. A better Red Paladin. Him? Or Keith? No, that choice wasn’t hard to make.

As time began to speed up again Lance pushed Keith out of the way and dove in front of the shot. He heard Keith shout his name, but he didn’t care. He just wanted Keith to live

The stone shot into Lance’s stomach and Lance got both his hand over it, trying to hold it still. He landed on his butt on the stone-cold ground, he bended over the stone and got his head between his knees. The electricity went all over his body, Lance felt the warmth and slight stabbing pain of the lightning. This _is the end_ was the first thought that came to mind when he closed his eyes, ready to save two others, and let his life end the way it should. As a soldier. What would become of his mom? How would she react finding out that her son, her pilot, her tiny hero, had died? Who would tell her? Shiro? Hunk? Or maybe even Keith.

The pain stopped and so did the warmth.

Lance opened his eyes. He looked to Keith who was staring with a terrified face at him. Nothing.

No pain, no light headedness, absolutely nothing.

Keith took in a sharp breath before letting out “L- Lance?”

Lance still felt fine. He relaxed his arms and legs and looked at where Haggar stood before, the stone was getting flakes of light on his face, not that they burned, those flakes also felt fine. Then he looked back up at Keith.

“I- I- think I’m f- fine?” Lance let out with an anxious voice. He felt that it was good to stand up, so he did. When he stood up, he stared at Keith and O’roacha not saying anything about what just happened.

“Really I think I’m goo-“ He got cut off by Haggar appearing in in front of him, grabbing the stone and shooting electricity in his head, followed by a sharp pain in his head. He yelled a scream of pain. He let go of his Bayard to grab his head that felt like it was splitting in two.

“Lance?!” he heard Keith yell, coming his way.

That was when Lance really started to feel it. His body got weak, drained of energy. He gave in and let himself fall to his knees. His head got light again, but not as in before. This light headedness was as if he got no worries anymore, like he finally got a day off from the Garrison and had gotten on the bus to see his family. When he would get home, he would always play with his nephew and niece because they always got the most emotional when he would return. He missed that feeling.

He heard his name being called again. He wasn’t sure who it was, but he didn’t like the loud sound of the voice. More words being spoken which he didn’t catch.

He felt his head being tilted up to see Keith. Lance looked at him unfocused. He wasn’t sure anymore who Keith was, he had some memories of a Keith being at the Garrison. A rival? No, _his_ rival. Why did couldn’t he remember this boy clearly?

But Lance soon forgot what worries he had as his body began to feel warm, a nice warmth. A warmth he felt in his chest when he would hug his mom tightly when he would get home. Or when he saw his niece and nephew laughing at a joke he made or a stunt he pulled. The feeling he got from his big brother when he would pick him over his shoulder when he was younger.

With that feeling he let everything go. No worries, it was nice.

He let everything, at his own will, turn white.


	2. Oenomel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The after effect of Haggars spell and how it's effecting the others.  
> Of course also what is happening to Lance :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "He remembered how he felt when Lance got caught in the explosion when Sendak tried to invade the castle. Lance looked like that now with only two major changes; Lance didn’t look injured, he was completely healthy he even still had his tan. And of course his face, he looked peaceful, as if he didn’t just yelled in agony when the Orb attacked him."

_Oenomel_

_N. Something combining strength with sweetness_

 

The will, and the heart of a paladin

 

Keith saw Lance fall to his knees with a confused face. The Galra held out for the witch but she was gone before he could hit her. He yelled his name again as he also dropped on his knees in front of Lance. He got his hands up to his face and helped the Cuban to look up at him.

“Lance stay with me!” Keith ordered the boy. Lance looked at him with confusion, unsure as to why he was yelling.

But as Keith said that he saw Lance looked relieved and his irises went bright blue, followed by the whites of his eyes. Lance got limb and fell towards Keith.

“Lance?!” Keith yelped with tears in his eyes. He shook Lance’s shoulder to try to get him out of it, but nothing came from the Red Paladin.

Lance’s eyes were now half open, unfocused. He looked like the Galra they came across earlier, but the Galra’s eyes dark blue. Lance’s eyes were very light, it was unlike the blue of the boy’s armour. Unlike the Blue Lion.

This blue wasn’t Lance’s. the blue of Lance was softer that this bright blue, Lance’s blue was like the ocean when you stand on the beach looking at the waves. Lance’s blue was like looking up at the sky and finding animals in the clouds. Lance’s blue was the colour of his eyes when Voltron had won a fight, full of hope and happiness

Keith looked back at O’roacha who stood paralyzed with shock on his face. Clearly he also didn’t know what to do.

O’roacha looked at the Red paladin. He dropped the box and went to stand in front of Keith and the lifeless Lance.

O’roacha did something Keith had not suspected of him… O’roacha scooped up Lance like a bag of potato’s and held him like a baby in his huge arms. Lance’s chest when up and down the way it should so that was something good Keith thought to himself.

“You take his bayard and escort us out of here,” O’roacha commanded.

“Wha-“ Keith sniffed the tears in his eyes away “What the about Haggar? A-and the base?”

“We are still blowing this place to hell,” O’Roacha said with a deadpan Keith also didn’t want to think about the whole mission when his friend was in a comatose state because of it. “We’ll get the Witch later.”

 “This must have been why it wasn’t gone. Other Galras found it, the same happened, Haggar wanted people to come here, she was playing with her own folk and others all along. We will not let that happen to the Red paladin. I promise to you Keith.” O’roacha said, looking at Keith with a reassuring expression.

O’roacha went from soldier to caretaker Keith thought to himself, now that something bad happened O’roacha didn’t act like he did when he was with the Blade. Keith had seen the Galra train before he actually met him like _one_ day ago. He was strong, Keith didn’t think this was a side of him. But looks can be deceiving, Keith knew that most of the Galra thought he was weak because he actually showed his caring side sometimes and didn’t hide it as much as the others. Maybe O’roacha hid it completely because he wanted to prevent others thinking this of him.

Keith took the bayard that was laying on the ground and it transformed into sword he has when he was a paladin. He did miss that feeling when his bayard would transform into a sword, it was a feeling he couldn’t quite place. it was weird that he felt like that, it wasn’t _his_ bayard anymore, it was Lance’s. Keith had accepted that, but maybe a part of him was still capable of being a paladin. If he could manage the bayard, would Red still let him in?

Keith didn’t have time to think about that right now and helped O’roacha get Lance off the platform and into the Lion Galra’s arms again. Keith just jumped off the platform and immediately began running to the door.

O’roacha was fast but was still careful with Lance in his arms, one of Lance’s arms was slumped down. This was somehow worrisome for Keith.

He remembered how he felt when Lance got caught in the explosion when Sendak tried to invade the castle. Lance looked like that now with only two major changes; Lance didn’t look injured, he was completely healthy he even still had his tan. And of course his face, he looked peaceful, as if he didn’t just yelled in agony when Haggar attacked him.

When they got past the Galra of before again Keith tried his best not to look at him. He didn’t want to imagine Lance looking like that, dried out, almost dead. He didn’t want to imagine his _friend_ like that.

When they got out of the facility the light was just as blinding as is was in the golden room.

Keith just hoped Red would at least open up for them.

Keith stood in front of Red he looked up at him and said; “I know I’m not your paladin anymore but can you please open up, Lance is-.“ Keith cut himself off.

He didn’t want Red to open up.

He didn’t want Red to listen to him.

Shiro and Allura would find out that something was wrong, and they would find a way for a different aircraft to come down and help them.

But he already heard a purr inside his head as approval. And Red opened his mouth to let the three of them in.

When they got to the cockpit O’roacha carefully placed Lance in the second chair. Of course Lance couldn’t fly Red.

“You piloted the Red lion before, didn’t you?” O’roacha asked Keith putting Lance’s strap on.

“Well, Yeah but…” Keith took a deep breath to let everything sink in “I’m not his pilot anymore, Lance is.”

“You got _him_ to open up.” O’roacha stated. Questioning that Keith called Red a _him_.

Keith looked at the front seat. Could he still pilot Red? But if he could, what would that mean for Lance?

The Cuban already was insecure about his place in Voltron and if Keith would pilot Red when he was out… Keith knew Lance would feel like shit. This was worse as when he needed to pilot Black, with Black it was different. Keith didn’t want to take Shiro’s place, but Voltron also needed a leader, the others had made him realize that. But Lance was right behind him, he could already see the boys heartbroken face as when he would learn that Keith had temporarily taken his place.

But he also couldn’t leave Lance in this magical coma he was in, he needed help.

He looked at Lance, his mouth was ajar. His eyes were still glowing and half open, even though Lance wasn’t there, Keith didn’t like the fact that Lance looked like this

“Could you... Could you close his eyes please?” Keith asked O’roacha looking away from him.

O’roacha looked at him with an understanding face and let his hand go over the glowing eyes of the Red paladin to close them.

Now, Keith got in the front seat and got his hands on the handles of the Red lion. He closed his eyes and let his mind go empty to find place for the Red lion.

Suddenly he heard everything power up and a roar coming from the lion. If being honest, Keith didn’t dare even thinking to say _his_ lion

“Good job Keith.” O’roacha told him as he sat down.

Keith just bit his lip.

 _‘Red?’_ he thought not really hoping Red would respond.

_I cannot find him paladin, I cannot- I cannot feel him. Hear him. He is not here._

Red sounded worried about her paladin, so was Keith.

“Let’s go.” Keith said to the lion and O’roacha.

So they flew back to the castle, not knowing how to explain what had happened.

 

* * *

 

“Hey Shiro, see? The base blew up!” Allura told Shiro over the coms.

“Ha, took them long enough.” Shiro chuckled back. “Let’s hope that Keith and Lance didn’t try slaughter each other.”

He heard Allura chuckle back “Well, even though those two do not get along most of the time. They can be of help to each other. When you were gone Lance helped Keith through his though time because he didn’t want to pilot Black, but eventually Lance convinced Keith to take on the mantle.”

“Huh..” Shiro began. “I- didn’t know that”

Shiro had missed a couple of months with his disappearance but he was just glad to be back with his team. He had indeed never asked anyone about what happened when he was gone aside from the missions, never what happened on an emotional level.

Then he saw Red flying up to them _very_ fast.

“Hey guys, Did everything go as planned?” Shiro asked the team that was in the Red lion.

“Shiro, it’s Keith!” he heard Keith yell. “It’s Lance, he- he tried to-, _god_ he-!“ Shiro heard Keith hyperventilate.

“Okay Keith calm down, fly to the castle we’ll take a look at him.” Shiro tried to calm the boy down, just like he did when they were kids and Keith would throw a tantrum.

“Shiro, it was Haggar, she did something to him, this isn’t something you can fix with a healing pod.” Keith responded.

Shiro now felt his own heart racing, _Haggar was there_ he thought to himself. She hurt Lance.

“What? - what happened” Allura asked the Galra in a concerned tone

“Go to the castle Keith,” Shiro said ignoring Allura’s question and trying to sound as calm as possible. “We’re going to do everything we can, Okay?” he wanted Keith to respond to confirm that he understood.

“O-okay,” Keith said in an unsteady voice.

When they got to the castle Shiro sprinted to the Red lion to see Keith, O’roacha… and Lance in arms of the lion Galra, he looked like he was just asleep. But you could just _feel_ that that wasn’t what Lance was doing.

“Allura get Coran!” he ordered the princess and she was already running.

Shiro took Lance from O’roacha, Lance was surely heavy, but Lance was _his_ right hand. So he was also _his_ responsibility. He didn’t want Lance to be in the arms of a stranger.

O’roacha looked at Lance with some concern as he was handing the boy over. Shiro sat down on the ground and brushed Lance’s hair from his eyes.

“Oh buddy, what did you do?” Shiro mumbled to the boy.

He touched the forehead of the Red paladin and felt a great heat coming off the boy. He was burning up.

“O’roacha help me get his suit off.” Shiro commanded. “Keith support his head.”

Keith sat down and placed Lance’s head on his knees. O’roacha sat down next to the paladins and started with Lance’s arm, ripping the suit off. The broken suit wouldn’t be a problem, the castle could make new ones. Shiro began taking of Lance’s boots and the armour off his legs

After his arms O’roacha got the armour off Lance’s chest. It reminded Shiro they had beaten Sendak when he attacked the castle and they had to get all of Lance’s armour off him before getting him in a pod. Shiro took Lance by the shoulders and lifted the comatose paladin up so O’roacha could get the armour of his back. Lance’s forehead was placed on Shiro’s neck and he could feel the boy softly breathing down his chest. He was soft and warm, but not as warm as before, getting the suit off was a good decision.

But Lance breathing softly and leaning unconscious to Shiro reminded him how vulnerable he really was. Lance was still a kid. He shouldn’t fight a war.

Shiro remembered this one time when they got back after the wormhole got corrupted. Shiro couldn’t sleep as usual but this time it was worse because he now also got night terrors about the creatures that attacked him on the planet he and Keith were stuck on. He was in the kitchen getting some water and trying to find sleeping pills Coran had recommended the day before. Then he heard footsteps down the hall and decided to check it out. Around the corner he saw the training room door shut. He walked towards the training room and heard struggling. He opened the door and saw Lance fighting with a robot, with a sword. Lance was trying to get better at short range fighting. But was failing. Shiro asked Lance what he was doing. Lance was putting up a story about wanting to beat Keith’s record, But Shiro wasn’t having it and told Lance to come with him.

They got to the Bridge and Shiro sat Lance down as he made sure they could see the stars. Lance asked him if he was going to give him a speech and Shiro just chuckled and said no. Shiro was going to tell Lance a story. “A story? Should I get my stuffed toy too?” Lance chuckled.

Shiro sat down and told Lance about himself, how he was when he was at the Garrison. Before he graduated and before the Kerberos mission. He also always wanted to be the best at everything and felt like nothing when he couldn’t do something the way he wanted. He wanted everyone to like him and see him as someone who was worthy of being there. Lance got in between and told him when Takashi Shirogane, the youngest pilot ever got in the Garrison.  _Everyone_ was obsessed with him and wanted to basically _be_ him. Shiro just had to laugh at this by just imagining a group of 13 year olds being obsessed with him.

The point he was trying to make was that Shiro sees a lot of himself in Lance. And that Lance shouldn’t worry so much about being the best, but just being himself. Lance had been looking up at the stars and then looked at Shiro again. He told Shiro that he had a nightmare about failing a mission and he just wanted to be a good asset to the team. He didn’t really feel like he belonged here. Shiro told him otherwise and argued that Lance was a good paladin and if it wasn’t for him they would have never found Voltron.

Shiro went on telling some goofy things about himself as to when he was very sleep deprived at the Garrison, like falling asleep in the middle of a simulation and not getting any rest for 27 hours straight before a test and afterwards Matt had to _drag_ Shiro to his room for the man to sleep. Eventually they both decided it was best that they both went to bed. They walked to their rooms and Shiro said bye to Lance as the doors to the Blue paladins’ room opened. Before he went in though he turned to Shiro and gave him a hug, he held on tight and Shiro hugged the boy back. Afterwards Lance was a little bit ashamed but Shiro told him it was fine and that he was glad Lance felt better, and that if he ever should feel insecure he could come to him.

Shiro felt responsible for this kid. He felt his heart pull together at the thought of Lance not waking up.

Coran came rushing in with an emergency bed on wheels that looked like the beds you have in hospitals. It didn’t give Shiro the best feeling.

“What happened to him?” Coran asked as he helped Shiro get Lance on the bed.

“He- he _err_ ,” Keith stuttered. “I don’t- I.”

O’roacha cut him off and told the rest of them everything that happened. The stone, how it seemed to have a huge power and the Galra they found. And that Lance sacrificed himself to save Keith and O’roacha.

Keith stood next to the bed slowly he began to panic again. He started breathing heavily again and balled his fists tightly.

“Keith,” Shiro put a hand on the boy’s shoulder and tried to calm him. “I know what happened is scary, but I need you to calm down. We need to figure out what Haggar exactly did”

“Well why didn’t we go with more then?!” Keith snapped at his leader.

“Keith!” Shiro didn’t want to command Keith like that, but if that is what it took to get him to not yell then it was worth it.

“I- I’m sorry Shiro,” Keith looked at Lance again. “Haggar shot at me, and Lance just got in the way, he _sacrificed_ himself Shiro. How could he do that?” Keith looked at Shiro with such helpless eyes. Keith took a deep breath again

“It’s,” Shiro took a pause before deciding what he was going to say. “It’s just who he is, it’s who _we_ are. We are the defenders of the universe and the lions would not have chosen Lance if he wasn’t capable of being just that.” Shiro looked at the unconscious paladin with concern.

 “I called Hunk and Pidge, they said they were going to bring Matt with them.” Allura said with a neutral tone. Not looking away from Lance.

“We should wait for them then, I’ll go inform the Blade and tell them what happened.” O’roacha said already walking away

“I’ll go with you” Keith said pacing behind him to catch up with the Galra.

“Absolutely not,” O’roacha turned to Keith with an angry face “Your friend is laying down right there you do _not_ have your head in the game. You need to be with your friends right now and fix this.”

O’roacha turned away from him again and left Keith standing there.

“It’s fine Keith,” Shiro assured him. “We’ll figure something out.”

But if Shiro was being honest with himself.

He wasn’t so sure.

 

* * *

 

Hunk and Pidge had been discussing with the Olkari about a new element they had found.

The Olkari had found a metal that was very strong, so strong it couldn’t melt, freeze or break in any way. It was maybe even stronger than the material Voltron was made out of. They were just lucky it was so rare, so rare even that all they had in front of them was all that was left of the material that the people of the planet could find.

“So, we know that this metal can’t be formed in any way that we know of.” Pidge said looking over the scrapes of material they had.

“And we can’t get it to form different with any other things the Olkari have here,” Hunk said studying a gun that the Olkari had made.

Hunk didn’t like weapons, but he was very fascinated by the way the Olkari made them, on earth this would have been called magic but here in space it’s just science.

“Listen,” Ryner began. Getting the two’s attention “I know you need a strong material to make new weapons with, but we cannot work with this. And I doubt the Galra can too”

“Not yet,” Pidge argued.

“But this material is stronger than your lions.” Ryner said to the green paladin. “It’s the only one of its kind.”

“That’s it!” Hunk yelled dropping the gun.

“What?” Pidge looked at him with question.

“Pidge you must know what diamonds are right?” Hunk asked the girl while picking up the gun he just dropped on the floor.

“Uhm... yeah I do but what does that have to do with- “Pidge stopped herself and quickly got up. “Oh my god Hunk you’re right!”

“What are diamonds?” Rynar asked.

“Diamonds are this stone on Earth, it’s very strong and just like this metal there isn’t anything stronger that itself. The stone is very ugly when you first see it but when you polish it, it becomes very shiny. And we polish and _cut_ it with another diamond!” Hunk explained to the Olkari.

“Can you get someone to get my brother?” Pidge asked Ryner with excitement.

“R-right” Ryner looked at the two with a wondering face. They got a little _too_ excited about this.

Ryner went out of the room and got an Olkari to get Matt.

“Your brother must really like working here.” Hunk told Pidge.

“Yeah, after dad left he made it his mission to make sure that the Olkari were heavily armed and that their intelligence would not be destroyed. Or forgotten.” Pidge said, dividing some big pieces of metal with the smaller ones.

Hunk came closer to the table and helped her with dividing pieces.

“But the last time I called him he said he almost got everything done that he wanted to do, so he can almost come back to the castle.” Pidge said optimistic.

“I’m just so glad for you that you got your brother back.” Hunk said with a soft smile.

Pidge gave out a small laugh and said. “I just cannot believe he didn’t freak when he found out that I came to _space_ to get him.” She started laughing louder.

Ryner came back with another Olkari and Matt. Matt walked to Pidge first and started hugging her

“Good to see you here Pidge” He said while almost chocking her.

“Yeah- let me go- okay, I didn’t want to bother you at first but now we do need your help. Are you okay with that or do you still have a lot to do?” Pidge asked her brother.

“Actually, when Layra came to get me,” He said waving at the Olkari that came with Ryner. “We were just making some final adjustments to this ship that we were making.” Matt looked happy knowing he could go with his sister again.

Suddenly the helmets of the two paladins began to ring. The both of them got to their helmets and put them on

“It’s Allura” Hunk said to Pidge accepting the call.

“Hey Allura, what’s up?” he asked the princes calmly.

“Hunk, Pidge we need you to come back to the castle!” Allura said worrisome in the coms.

“We’re not done yet.” Pidge said. They had only been here for about thirty minutes.

“Those weapons don’t matter right now,” Allura told them.

“Why not? You were very precise about needing a- “

“It’s Lance, he- I don’t know what he has but Haggar was there and I need you to come here.” Allura cut the green paladin off.

“What?!” Hunk yelped, his friend got attacked by one of the most feared people of the universe, that was not good.

Pidge looked at Hunk with a scared face and then looked to Matt with the same expression on his face.

“We’re coming as fast as we can, we’re bringing Matt with us.” Pidge said expressionless, not in accordance with her face.

“Good luck.” Allura said hanging up.

They explained to Ryner that they had to go and weren’t sure when they would be coming back but they would finish what they wanted to do.

Ryner assured them that the Olkari would go with their plan and use the metal itself to make weapons and shields.

Matt got in the Green lion and Hunk got in his own and they flew off.

Hunk was panicking in his lion. So much even he couldn’t talk. Was Lance hurt? Would he be alright? Can he talk? Does he remember who is?

So many questions and no answers.

“Hunk are you okay?” Pidge asked with concern in her voice.

Hunk finally let out a shaky breath that he was holding for too long.

“I’m worried Pidge.” He said.

“I know, just breath, we’ll find out what happened.” Pidge assured him.

Hunk told Pidge about his anxiety a long time ago, it was in the Garrison. After he got a panic attack Lance was helping him with drinking water and eating some food. And because Hunk and Lance were Pidge’s only friends she looked for them, and saw Hunk sitting on his bed and Lance talking to him while rubbing his back. This was when Hunk told Pidge about his anxiety and that he got panic attacks sometimes, his panic attacks had gotten less. In the time he was in space he had only gotten on the verge of panic attacks but not actually gotten one. Lance or Pidge was there to help him, or maybe he got used to almost getting blow up by aliens.

Pidge knew how to handle Hunk when he would panic and help him calm down. Mostly get his mind off things.

After a few minutes with their lions on hyper speed they got to the castle and got in as fast as they could. They immediately saw the others and Lance on an infirmary bed. This did not make Hunk feel better.

The second he landed he ran out of his Lion and ran to Lance

“What happened?!” He yelled with tears in his eyes.

He now stood at the side of the bed and took Lance’s hand. Also checking his pulse and feeling his forehead. Pidge and Matt were pacing out of the Green lion and got to the bed in front of Red. They looked at the Red Paladin with shock on their face.

They got explained everything, Haggar, Galra, Blue eyes, everything. Keith was informing them, but he seemed just as anxious as he did Hunk thought to himself.

They were all arguing about what to check, heart, quintessence or his vitals.

But as they were talking Hunk heard Lance making small noises. Hurt noises. Suddenly everyone looked at the boy and everyone was talking about what to do.

Keith yelled at them to shut up and be quiet.

Hunk was still holding his hand and tried to talk to him. “Hey Lance, can you hear me? It’s me, Hunk.” Hunk’s breath trembled, and tears were again swelling in his eyes.

Lance’s head was rolling from left to right and he was biting his teeth as he was making more hurt noises. He balled his fists and was breathing with struggle. Suddenly his eyes opened like Keith described, his eyes were glowing a light blue

Lance was now really in a struggle. He started breathing really heaving, as if there was a heavy weight on his chest. and kept screaming in between. He began to move his legs in a way as if he was uncomfortable.  Everyone except Hunk took a step back. Pidge held on to her brother as she saw her friend in pain.

“Hunk get away from him we don’t know what will happen.” Shiro told him. But Hunk ignored him, he wanted to be next to his friend if anything happened.

“Lance please listen to me _hermano_.” Hunk called Lance his brother in times he really needed Lance to calm down or listen to him.

He didn’t start the _“hermano_ ” thing. Lance did, he accidentally called him his brother when Hunk had a panic attack when they were 15 and afterwards they didn’t stop. It wasn’t a joke, it was genuine. They felt like brothers, they _were_ brothers.

Suddenly Lance calmed down and everyone felt the stress leaving them. Lance was still taking short breaths and small noises, but the expression on his face was less scared than before. Everyone got a little closer to the Red paladin.

But then Lance let out a loud scream of pain. Everyone was terrified by the sound the boy made. But that scream also meant the end of the energy he was using as Lance got quiet again and stopped moving his body was limb once again. He was breathing softly once more, and Hunk held his hand firmly. Lance was gone again. His eyes were half open, and Hunk saw them change colour. The light blue had turned darker than before.

Everyone got around Lance’s bed again and saw the change in his eyes.

Pidge let out a small sob and hugged her brother again and he held on just as tight to her as he was looking to the comatose Red paladin.

They all looked at their friend who was lying helpless on the bed.

“I think I might know what to check.” Coran claimed and went out of the room.

None of them said anything. They just stared at someone who wasn’t even really there.

Hunk just hoped this would not be how Lance would spend his last moments.

 

* * *

 

Darkness.

There was nothing to see.

Lance didn’t know what happened before all this darkness. Where was he?

“-ance”

Someone was calling his name.

“Lance?” he heard again.

Everything was blurry, he didn’t remember where he was.

“Lance, _mijo_ wake up you promised to help me with the groceries.”

Someone was shaking his shoulder.

The voice was familiar.

Lance opened his eyes and unfocused looked around. There were colourful blurs and a figure moving. Slowly everything became more focused and he moved his head around.

He was in a chair, behind his desk.

How long had he been there?

“Lance you really need to stop staying up all night to study it’s not good for you.”

He turned to his left to see his mom standing there.

“Come on,” she said while lifting Lance up with his shoulders.

He looked around glassy and tried to comprehend what was happening. He remembered his room. He looked around and saw everything in place, his bed untouched of course as he spent the night drooling over his books.

“Lance?” his mom asked, she looked with a sweet concern that would make a man her age melt. “Are you with me?”

Lance snapped out of it and realized where he was. He was in his room at home. He was studying for his application test for the Garrison and last night while making dinner he told his mom that he would help her buy groceries today.

“Yeah, sorry _mamá._ ” Lance said rubbing his eyes. He was very tired, he must have gotten what? 3 hours of sleep? Probably.

“Good,” she said with a lighten up smile. “Get ready, change your clothes and brush your teeth. I made sure Ronnie left some bread over for you.” She brushed his hair with her hand and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

She left the room and closed his door.

Lance tried to get more focused.

He felt like he had a weird dream. About Space?

Yeah, it could be. He was studying for the garrison and his dream was to go to space like that pilot. What’s his name? he was very young getting into the Garrison. Lance used to have a crush on him. _Whatever_ he thought. Can’t have been more important than helping his mom with the groceries.

He did like his mom asked him, he changed into a better and clean pair of clothes. He didn’t feel like going downstairs and then get upstairs _again_ to brush his teeth, so he did that first and decided just to skip breakfast.

As he walked into the bathroom he heard his name get yelled from the other side of the second floor.

“Lance did you take my facemask again?!” it was his sister, Veronica.

“Why would I have your facemask? Again?” he said in a grove tone, picking up his toothbrush.

“I can’t find it.” She yelled back.

“Hey! Just because you can’t find something doesn’t mean _I_ have it.” He argued back while putting toothpaste on his blue toothbrush. “Besides your skin and mine are completely different. Yours gets _super_ oily that that oil can be used for a pan to bake an egg in.” he teased.

“Gross!” Veronica yelled back. “Also, yours gets _so_ dry that- that it looks like the desert.” She snapped back.

“No it doesn’t,” Lance yelled back “Because _I don’t lose my facemask_ ” he argued with his older sister.

“I will fight you _hermano._ ” His sister said barging in the bathroom door and grabbing him by his neck. She ruffled his hair laughing.

“Ow- ow- stop. Ronnie!” Lance begged his sister to let go.

“Oh, there it is.” Veronica let go of her brother and got a red jar that was sitting on the bathroom sink.

“You’re the worst.” Lance said chuckling and rubbing over his head.

“ _Lo siento_ _hermano_ , but to be fair you are extremely sleep deprived for your Garrison test, so it wouldn’t have surprised me if you took mine.” Ronnie said combing his hair in place again.

“You’re mean” Lance pouted.

“Yeah sure, brush your teeth you stink.” She teased him making a disgusted face.

So Lance picked up the toothbrush that he had dropped in the sink. He got the red toothbrush and started brushing his teeth. Afterwards he washed his face with water and dried his face on a red towel that was hanging on the heater.

Lance didn’t know who’s towel it was but it was dry and clean, so he just used it for a few seconds.  And placed it back the way he found it.

He ran down the wooden stairs that were in his home and found his mom in the kitchen packing some bags to put their food in.

“Ready _mamá_.” Lance said to his mom who didn’t see him until now.

“Right, get in the car I’ll be there in a second _Leandro_.” His mom told him.

Lance looked up to that name, his mom doesn’t usually call him Leandro only when she really needed him to listen. Like when he was in trouble.

But he did what he was told, he got his jacket and walked to the red car his mom had, for some reason the car didn’t look familiar. _shit_ he thought, he must be really tired.

He opened the door and sat in the front seat, he looked outside the window to the other houses. He couldn’t really focus on them, some things felt off.

 Like the door of the house next to his, the colour was different. He remembered the door being green, but this green was a little too bright than he believed it to be. And the house next to that always had some toys out in the front yard but he didn’t recognize these toys. That house had a girl and a boy, but now there were only boy toys. A baseball, water guns, airplanes and some toy cars, but the girl always played with her tea set outside. Where was it?

“Seatbelt on.” He almost jumped from the sudden sound from his mom.

He put his seatbelt on as his mom started the car and they drove off.

Lance must have blacked out for a second because after what felt for him like a minute they were already in the mall. He didn’t remember getting out of the car or picking up the bags.

He looked around and followed his mom who was walking into the groceries store. He got a list from his mom for things to find so they could get back home quickly.

He went to get a basket at the front of the store and behind the cash register was a pretty looking lady, she had a dark skin tone and _white_ hair? Lance didn’t think it was ugly, but it wasn’t common to have. She was talking to a man with orange hair and a big moustache. Lance got his basket and went back to doing what he needed to do.

Lance first went to the backing alley, he needed backing powder, flour, and food colouring. When he was looking for the flour he saw a man standing at the end of the alley, he had a yellow shirt on and had a bandana on his head. He was very big and had a soft expression on his face. Lance knew that face from somewhere, maybe he saw the guy around when he had a tour at the Garrison?

Lance didn’t think much of it and just put the things in his basket he needed.

The same thing happened as he went to get eggs, he saw a girl in a green shirt and shorts staring at the cooling. She had short brown hair and glasses, she could easily be mis gendered if it wasn’t for the make-up she had on. Lance was sure he had seen her before, but before he could really get into it he heard someone yell “Pidge” and she walked away.

 _Pidge_.

Who the hell names their kid _Pidge_?

Lance just grabbed the eggs and now needed to get soap and toothpaste.

When he got to the hygiene alley he saw another man standing there, he had black hair and some sort of prostatic, his hair was a little off, he had some sort of floof on the front and had shaved it from under to the half. Lance _knew_ he had seen this man before. He had to be sure so he walked up to him and hesitantly said;

“E-excuse me?”

No response. The man was just focused on the bathbombs that were in front of him

Maybe just get him to talk, like ask the time.

“S-sorry can you maybe tell me the time?”

Again, no response.

This man was just ignoring him.

Rude.

So Lance, again, just walked away and got what he needed.

He got everything his mom told him to get so he went to look for her, he got past the meat alley and bumped into a boy with a black shirt. And a mullet?

“Hey, watch it.” He said but the boy didn’t give him a glare, he just kept walking.

_Oh, humanity what have you become?_

Suddenly he felt his hand itching, a weird itch because he didn’t feel the need to scratch it. It was more like someone was putting pressure on it. He balled and stretched his hand and the feeling was gone. Must have been cramps.

Lance found his mom looking at the meat in the freezer.

“What are you looking for _mamá_?” he asked his mom curious

“I’m just looking for the right amount of meat _mijo_ ” she answered him. “I’m going to make those meatballs your dad likes so much, he said he would be home in time.”

Suddenly Lance became very confused.

_What?_

His dad?

His dad was dea-

That’s when he remembered.

 _Hunk_ was there to comfort Lance after his dad died. Hunk was his best and oldest friend, his _brother_.

His brother?

He hadn’t seen his brothers at home, Luis and Marco

His younger brother Luis was always home.

And his older brother Marco hadn’t gone to study abroad yet, he needed to wait a few months and he helped Lance with his equations. For the _Garrison_.

And at the Garrison he met _Pidge_ Gunderson also Katie Holt who was looking for her brother who was with the Kerberos mission.

 _Shiro_ was with him on the Kerberos mission.

Lance and _Keith_ had saved Shiro together.

He found the _Blue lion_.

They formed _Voltron_.

Saved aliens.

Fought the Galra.

Met the Blade of Marmora.

 _The mission_. He remembered the mission he was on, he fought Haggar. This was the doing of that witch!

It all felt like waking up from a dream, or a snap back from a daydream and everything feeling like it isn’t real. but _this_ really wasn’t real.

.

“Lance?” his mom asked him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

No, no this wasn’t his mom. This was a delusion made by some weird-ass Galra/altean magic mix.

Lance dropped his basket and ran out of the store, he heard his mom calling out for him, but he just ignored it. He went past the cash register and didn’t even feel anyone looking at him.

He went outside and found-

Nothing.

He walked away from the store, there was nothing. No streets or people that he had believe that there first to be. Everything was white and empty except the supermarket behind him.

“Lance, _mijo_ what are you doing? Come back!” his “ _mom_ ” sounded angry, and his mom wouldn’t get angry about this. He had only once seen his mom get angry at him and to be honest, he deserved it back then.

He turned around and got angrier than he had ever been

“I’m not your _mijo_ , let me go!” He yelled at the illusion of his mom.

“Lance?!” His mom looked shocked at him, heartbroken that he yelled at him

No. this wasn’t his mom he kept telling himself.

“My friends are going to get me out of here and when they do I’m going to kill you! You hear me?” He looked up at the white sky yelling at nothing

“Lance.” His mom commanded him to look at her.

 _Not. My. Mom._ He had to keep telling himself that, he couldn’t afford to fall back in the control of the dreamscape again.

His mo- _mom’s illusion_ now stood in front of him, Lance hadn’t even seen her move to him.

“Lance, look at me.” She wanted him to look at her, but Lance closed his eyes and focused on something else

Space.

_-unk -get- a-ay_

Voltron.

Red.

_-ance- hea- -e-_

Space.

Voltron.

His Lion.

_-listen t- -e -erman-_

Space.

Vol-tron

His... his…

Lance felt a hand come up to his cheek and he felt a wave of calmness overwhelming him. Leaving him sheepishly tired. Blinking a few times to keep him from falling.

“Look at me Lance” his mom commanded him.

He looked down into her eyes and saw how beautifully brown they were. His mom had the sweetest eyes. His dad always told him that it took only one look in the eyes of his mom to make him fall in love with her.

“Do you want to go home Lance?” she asked him sweetly.

He looked behind his mom and saw the garden of his house he grew up in. he saw his niece, nephew and his cousin playing in the tiny pool that was put up and his younger brother, Luis was splashing them wet. His grandmother and grandfather were sitting under a parasol in the shadow. His sister Veronica was reading a book under the sun. his aunt was sewing the clothes of her baby, and his older brother Marco was barbequing hamburgers. his cousin was in a crib inside the house next to his older sister Sophia, who was watching her kids from inside

 “Do you want to come home Lance?” she asked him again. Knowing he saw what she wanted him to see.

He didn’t understand why she was asking him that, of course he wanted to come home. he nodded tiredly.

“Good,” she placed both hands on his cheeks.

Suddenly a sharp pain came in his head, and Lance let out a small yell of pain. He fell to his knees on the ground with his moms’ hands still on his cheeks, she also came to her knees in front of him.

“We’ll do better next time.” She promised.

He didn’t understand why she said that, but he was just glad he could come home. to his _mamá_ his _hermana, hermano_ and his _abuelos_ , his _tía_ , _primo_ , _sobrino y sobrina_. He wanted to be with them. nothing more.

Like that he felt calm and let a warm wave come over him, and everything became white once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you say something i know with the bathroom scene i first said blue toothbrush and then red but that was the point.  
> If anyone is confused, Lance is kind of aware about his surroundings in the real world but the dreamscape filters it to fit his liking. thats why the team didn't have the most accurate discription because otherwise Lance would have snapped out of it earlier. 
> 
> Next chapter shit's abt to go down with Keith and Lance i promise...


	3. Sonder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHOO BOY  
> after what? 3 seasons the third chapter is posted? (i do hate myself yea)
> 
> i am dedermined to finish this motherfucker even if it kill me expect a finale whenever

_Sonder_

_n_. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own

 

Seeing your friend in pain is one of the worst things you can experience. Keith had seen his friends in pain multiple times. Pidge broke her arm once, Hunk got stabbed and had a knife stuck in his stomach, Allura had been in pain multiple times piloting the castle and getting all of them to safety and Coran had gotten poisoned once, not that badly or incurable but everyone was still a little freaked out

A time Keith will never forget was when Shiro got badly hurt and told him to lead Voltron, if he was being honest it was traumatizing. The person who was practically his brother made arrangements for if he _died_. Not even long after he got him back.

Keith hated it.

He hated how he would have to lead the team. How he would have to make the decisions that would have to save the universe. He hated how he could have all of them killed in a matter of seconds

He hates how a couple of young people have to carry the weight of the universe on their shoulders and have to be prepared to die or witness death.

Coran had asked all of them to come to the bridge where he said he found what he was looking for.

He can’t get his eyes off Lance, who is lying still and quite peaceful still in his black suit. Even though Shiro was racing him on his bed to the bridge. His chest was slowly going up and down. Hunk had closed Lance’s eyes again because it was freaking everyone out. He was just sleeping, sleeping like he probably hadn’t done in a long time, none of them had for that matter.

People were talking but he locked all of it out. He was too deep in thought to intervene. He just wanted his friend to be okay. He didn’t want to lose him.

They all got to the bridge where Coran already stood with machines and wires.

“Keith?”

Keith shot his head up to Shiro who was looking at him with concern.

“I understand you’re worried but keep your head in the game, okay?” he said.

Keith nodded and walked further.

Coran placed a mind melding headpiece on Lance’s head. He only slightly lolled his head to the side and moaned when Coran put his head back down. Then he started to proceed on sticking wires to Lance’s face, chest and he put a needle in the paladin’s arms.

“So, what is it you wanted to check?” Shiro asked.

“When number three’s eyes turned darker I knew it had something to do with quintessence, and I remembered something.” Coran finally had some files he could look at from the headpiece

Coran pulled up a hologram on the bridge, so everyone could see. Slowly there started to appear lines that were from Lance’s brain activity, heart beat and blood information.

“His blood flow to the brain seems normal.” Pidge says.

“There isn’t anything weird with his blood.” Matt also concluded form the scans

“Yeah, and his brain activity is actually pretty high.” Hunk added.

“He isn’t sleeping, and he isn’t in a coma. The brain is working like it would do if Number three was awake, but he isn’t.” Coran said.

“It means that Number three is stuck in his own mind” the adviser explained to the others, who were clearly confused by what the scans meant. “Or might as well in his own astral plane.”

“I heard of this before, my great grandfather told me a story about this before.” Coran looked down to Lance and took a deep breath.

“This is similar to an old Altean therapy. When Alteans would experience a traumatic event, such as in the war or mostly during the Lactraqious event. you know, these horrible nightmarish creatures invaded so many planets until Alfors grandfather found a way to get rid of them with something that my grea-“Coran started to get lost in thought again by telling everyone about something no one knew anything about, and didn’t have time to know about.

“Coran.” Allura got Coran out of his dream because knowing Coran he could talk about it for over an hour without getting to the point

“Right, sorry princess” Coran walked to his post and looked at the scans he made of Lance

 “They were often haunted by nightmares or panic attacks, when this would happen they could turn to an Altean witch. This witch, Taria could turn their nightmares into dreams or mindscapes that they themselves could make or plan out. Instead of being back into a battlefield, they could be in a Juniberry field with their family instead. We called this type of therapy Hypnos.”

Everyone took their gLances at Shiro, who pretended not to see them. everyone knew Shiro was taunted by nightmares, trauma and panic attacks. If this was a therapy that could still be done today, then Shiro would have less trouble with the fact he had been tortured for over a year.

But Hunk didn’t think about that for long, his mind shot to images of him finding Lance late at night staring at the planets on the bridge. Humming songs to himself and drowning in thought.

“Lance is homesick, very much so” he said.

“Easy target.” Keith frowned, he hated how Haggar took advantage of Lance’s love and kindness for his home. Like he was some sort of toy, it was a game to her.

“It was very experimental. Taria worked on ways to make people dream for years before finally working it on a client. Every time the witch went into the mindscape- basically a personal astral plane- of the people, she absorbed some of their quintessence. The first time she did it, she was extremely confused and at the same time she said she felt better than she had ever felt before. She found out that she could take quintessence of people while they were in their mindscape.” Coran told.

“She was the first person to get addicted to quintessence,” Pidge concluded. “like Zarkon and Haggar.”

“Indeed” Coran confirmed. “Eventually families of the clients started to complain that they hadn’t seen them in ages to Alfors grandfather who quickly saw the connection between all the missing. The king gave a visit to Taria, he saw was half of the army in her basement all in the state Lance is in now, although my grandfather described their eyes much darker and each a different colour.”  
  
“Everyone has different quintessence, it is also a form of light. So it’s is literally the flame that keeps us alive.” Allura explained to the others. She frowned “That is why when Haggar absorbs Lance’s Quintessence his eyes become darker. Lance is becoming hollow.”

Keith’s heart dropped at that thought. 

“She did not even try to wake them anymore, in their sleep they were vulnerable and open to her, she could take small amounts of it at a time from everyone. Growing more powerful,” Coran looked sad telling the story.

“Taria, rid a lot of people of their quintessence for good. A lot of wonderful, strong people died. Only because they wanted to get a night sleep.” Coran said.

“How did no Altean know about this? This should have gone in the history books.” Allura asked calmly.

“I suppose they thought the lesser people knew about it, no one would try to reincarnate it.” Coran answered.

“But what does that stone have to do this?” Keith asked.

“The stone _is_ Taria” Coran stated. “It was her punishment, she was to powerful to lock away or to kill.”

“So, Haggar found her and used power to put Lance into a dream and absorb his quintessence from a distance?” Matt concluded.

“Exactly,” Coran confirmed. Coran went silent for a few seconds, frowning, and realizing he would have to have to say some of the worst words to ever come out of his mouth.

“If we don’t wake Number thr- _Lance_ up. He will die.”

The whole room went quiet for a moment, no one had said that out loud yet. And they hit hard. Lance was dying and if they didn’t figure out how to help they would lose him forever.

“How do we get Lance out of his mindscape then?” Pidge asked while also looking at the Cuban.

“My guess, number five, is that we need to make him aware that he’s asleep.” Coran carefully pulled off the wires of Lance. “We can’t wake him up if he’s not aware of anything we are doing, and I strongly do not suggest hurting him seeing how that would put him into a flight response and the only escape he has is his mindscape”

“How about waking him up from his dream by getting in his mind?” Hunk asked “Kinda like Haggar is doing. Only we can use more technology than she can.”

_Paladin._

Keith got astounded by the sudden voice of the red lion in his mind. He hadn’t heard it in so long, as much as he hates to admit it, he missed it

_Paladin. We must._

“Keith, is something wrong?” Shiro saw the boy look surprised.

_He is hurting, paladin. Help him please._

“I- it’s red. He says I- or _we_ need to help Lance” Keith is still very confused what Red means by that

_We can do it together paladin._

“He says we can do it together.” Keith repeated for the team.  “H- how would we do that?” he asked both the lion and his team.

_Both my paladins are connected to me_

“Maybe he means that you and Lance have similar quintessence because the both of you can pilot Red?” Hunk tried to explain

“He says Lance and I are both connected to him.” He looked to Allura. She had more knowledge of quintessence than any of them.

_I cannot feel him._

“I suppose the both of you can both access the astral plane of the red lion.” Allura said optimistic, knowing that now Lance had a chance.

_We need to get him back, paladin_

“How do we do that?”

Everyone looked at each other.

Because this wasn’t going to be easy.

 

* * *

 

“This is dumb.” Keith exclaimed sitting up from the bed he was put on.

“Keith you are the only one who can go to Red’s astral plane and find Lance.” Shiro pushed him back down with force.

“Hunk should go. He knows Lance better than any of us!”

“I don’t have a connection to Red, Keith” Hunk argued

“Lance _hates_ me! If I tell him to come back he’ll probably would wanna stay in his dream more.” Keith sat back up again.

“Dude, you can think like that.” Pidge said from the other side of the bed, checking the heartbeat of both Lance and the Galran.

They were all in the hangars again. Right in front of red. They weren’t sure if being closer would make the connection stronger, but it made them feel like it did.

“Lance doesn’t _hate_ anyone except for evil Galra,” Pidge added “And you are good. So, no hate.”

“Okay, so he doesn’t _hate_ me, he doesn’t like me either.” Keith threw his hands up in the air. “I don’t know _anything_ about him, were not friends. We never even had full conversations at the Garrison. He probably thinks he’s better off without me.”

“Seriously?” Hunk looked at him with a disappointed look. “When you didn’t want to pilot Black, who convinced you to?”

“Lance,” Keith confirmed “But all of yo-“

“And when Lance wanted to step down, who did he go to first?”

“You knew about that?!” Keith exclaimed.

“I saw him getting out of your room then and I confronted him- That’s not the point, the point is that he trusted you back then and he always will.” Hunk reassured him. “Lance’s trust is not an easy one to lose.”

“He did take a shot for you dude.” Pidge added.

“Which is what paladins _do_ , like Shiro said it’s who you are” Keith argued.

“I said it’s who _we_ are, Keith” Shiro looked at him. “Like it or not, you are still, and always will be a part of Voltron. _A paladin_.”

Keith looked down. He didn’t realize that everyone still thought of him like that. _He left_ , he left for the Blade of Marmora and if it wasn’t for Shiro during the coalition a lot of people would have died.

Hunk moved over to Lance’s bed with an IV in his hand. Lance couldn’t eat or drink for maybe a long time, so they needed to keep him hydrated as much as they could. Hunk found a vein and pinched the needle through the Cubans skin.

Keith _did_ know Lance didn’t like needles, he had heard that when Hunk was complaining about being scared for so many dumb things and Lance wanted to make him feel better and told him that he was afraid of needles because his sister once scared him with a doctor’s costume when he was a kid. Keith had joined and told Hunk that he was afraid of creaking stairs, because when he was a kid he went into the basement of his house and fell right through them, and because he was so tiny back then he fell right into darkness, oddly he didn’t fear the dark, just creaking stairs. His dad came home from work an hour later and found Keith, crying and inability to talk through all the sobbing.

Lance never made fun of Keith for that.

And Keith never made fun of Lance for his fear.

He couldn’t let the fear of being hated stop him from saving Lance.

“When I see him, what do I say?” Keith asked.

Shiro gave him a proud smile.

“If Lance is in a dreamscape, he probably won’t remember you or any of us, so you have to convince him that _you_ know _him_ ” Hunk answered.

“What do I need to know?” Keith only knew Lance after the garrison. not before and not as a kid.

“Well,” Hunk started to think about probably everything he knew about Lance.

“To start off, his full name is Leandro ‘Lance’ Mathias McClain-Sanchez.” Hunk said his name in with an off tone Spanish accent. “His father died when he was eleven years old.” Keith looked up to that fact, Keith had lost his father when he was around that age. He remembered one of the worst times of his life again. He didn’t know that Lance went through the same thing. Keith noticed that Shiro also looked up. And if you took all the times Lance was with Shiro on a mission, and how he wanted to impress him, you could say that Lance saw Shiro as a father figure he lost so long ago.

“Uh- oh! He loves his niece and nephew, Alexi and Carlos very much and will never leave their side when they visit. His mother is one of the kindest people ever!” Hunk got a little excited about that part.

“He loves to help her. Especially when his older sister Sophia must get a sitter and they are in charge of his niece and nephew, and he goes to the beach regularly with his family. Most of the time with his older sister Veronica, his younger brother Luis, and Alexi and Carlos.” Hunk continued “His older brother, Marco wanted to study abroad, and his aunt, Maria is a paediatrician. So her son, Cedro is really interested in biology Lance used to be his patient all the time, I remember him telling me that Cedro wanted to ‘cure’ his baby brother Mateo from the ‘frog skin’ -whatever the heck he meant with that-.”

“He can play the guitar and sings all kinds of songs, and sometimes they hold campfires at the beach. I know because me and my moms visited during Christmas once and, Oh my was that a ride.” Hunk chuckled but turned sad at the thought. Lance was dying, there was no way around it. Keith had to succeed or those Christmases at the beach would just be a happy memory.

“He- Uhm.” Hunk cleared his throat. “He used to have a Disney princess phase -please don’t tell him I told you that- and his favourite movie was The little mermaid but Moana came to a solid second.” Hunks voice started to break a little.

“I think that’s a lot of information Hunk,” Shiro knew the Yellow paladin would just get lost in emotions if he talked a second longer about all the happy memories of his friend.

“So,” Keith started “sisters; Veronica, and Sophia. Brothers; Marco and Luis. Aunt; Maria. Cousin; Cedro and Mateo. Niece; Alexi. Nephew; Carlos. Right?”

Hunk nodded.

“Campfire, guitar, Christmas, princesses. I don’t know what to do with all of that.” Keith looked up to Shiro. “What if I screw this up?”

“Keith you won’t.” Shiro told him. “You’re his friend, that’s what’s important. He’ll remember.”

As if on que Allura, Coran and Matt came through the door. Both Allura and Matt had each one of the mind melding headsets in their head that were still on their holder. They were now attached with wires. They got to the beds and Coran carefully tilted Lance’s head up for Matt to place the headset on his head. Lance groaned and frowned at the movement but seemed to relax leaning into Coran’s hands. The adviser seemed to be startled at this and placed him back faster then he held the paladin up.

Allura gave Keith his headset and he placed it on his head. Now that the Galran had his headset on, both of them were glowing.

“I increased the power of the mind melding headsets.” Matt explained.

“Now you two should be able to link your minds.” Allura explained to Keith. “Though for this you _do_ have to be asleep Keith.”

“Well, I can’t wait any longer. The longer we wait the more quintessence Lance loses.” Keith said in a hurry.

Coran walked over to him with a small injection needle, filling it up with a liquid. “Okay my boy. But I’m going to have to give you a light sedative just to get you on your way to the astral plane.”

Keith laid down on the bed and exposed his arm to Coran

“Try to focus on the Red Lion,” Coran put the needle in his arm and Keith took a deep breath. Trying to relax and focus on the Red lion.

“Good luck, Keith. We believe in you.” Shiro assured him.

Keith nodded, closed his eyes letting, he felled drowsy and focused on that feeling slowly letting everything become dark.

 

* * *

 

She loved this feeling.

The rush of all the adrenaline all at once, a warm tingling all over.

The numb lingering that the sweet essence left behind.

She hadn’t forgotten how _good_ the quintessence of earthlings felt. She took that of her champion regularly. He was so strong and full courage and she could taste that in his quintessence again.

And this paladin, he was _kind_ and _loving_. That’s what feels the best when it’s broken. But not only that, the _pain_ , oh the pain was the best feeling yet. That of the other Voltron members. And the deep sadness within the Blue boy.  

Haggar was in her chamber, she had ordered the other druids to leave. So she only could manage the dreamscape with her stone. She was levitating the stone in front of her and kept the spell consistent.

Haggar had found the stone long ago. Long before the new Voltron paladins. But her anger that rooted under her skin, her screams of failure. Were enough to wake Tayra from her eternal slumber and let her help in the spells Haggar casts. Now, Tayra had taught her how to make dreamscapes for every kind and absorb their quintessence when they are the most vulnerable.

And she had tried it with, lesser species. Some Galra soldiers. Other rebel explorers. But nothing would ever come close to the sweet quintessence she is feeling in her veins now. And she became more powerful after every hour.

Sure there were some, lets say, difficulties. Not knowing everything about the boy was hard. And keeping him under when he realized he was in a dream. Was even harder. But when Tayra helped, she had more quintessence than before and felt the life drain out of the Red boy. She had a plan to keep him under.

For just a second, a moment that couldn’t even count as a loss. She felt the energy, anger, pain of the people around the boy. He has aware, yes. But now so was she. She was in control.

Haggar loved the feeling of power.

Haggar loved draining the quintessence out of the poor boy.

Haggar loved the pain this would bring.

She only had to wait, wait until the Blue boy was sucked dry.

 

* * *

 

He was floating.

Lance felt so relaxed, he didn’t know why but he embraced it.

He felt warm and floaty and without any responsibilities.

That was until 2 hyperactive monkeys jumped on him. Scaring the heck out of him, Laughing and giggling.

“Tio Lance! Tio Lance” Alexi giggled jumping on the bed.

“Ugh~ you two are going to be the death of me”

“It’s Saturday! You said Saturday is beach day!” Carlos said flopping on Lances chest.

“Ohhw~” Lance exhaled with a laugh. “You’re getting too big for that Carlos.”

“And you’re getting old if you’d like to sleep instead of surf with us” Carlos pouted.

Alexi was still jumping on the squeaking bed and Lance laughed to himself.

“Go get your stuff and collect the others who wanna come and I’ll get everything else”

Both the kids squealed and ran out of his room as fast as they came in.

Lance stretched himself out with a yawn, it was summer and perfect weather to go to the beach with everyone.

After Lance did his morning routine, he went downstairs to find Alexi and Carlos in their bathing suit and 2 backpacks full of stuff in the kitchen, and them cleaning up their plates.

He grabbed an apple that was sitting in the fruit basket and bit down, spitting it out when he tasted what he just bit down on. It tasted like actual garbage, sour and rotten. The apple looked fine on the inside when he looked at it, but just decided to throw away all the apples in the fruit basket. No garbage apples in this house.

“It’s just the two of you?” Lance asked.

The two were silent for a while, as if not having heard what he said.

“Yes!” Alexi eventually shouted.

He wondered why the others wouldn’t want to come, mostly it was more than just the three of them. his younger brother always wanted to come, and Veronica always wanted to come with too, because she loved reading books in the sun.

Lance grabbed his stuff from the garage; his surfboard, a parasol and his bathing suit and went back in the kitchen to find the two already in front of the door with their backpacks on.

“Let’s go tio Lance.” Carlos said opening the door.

“Wait,” Lance stopped him “Grandma and your mom have to know we’re gone”

“But they already know,” Carlos said, “You said you told them.”

Had he?

“No, I-“

Yes, he did.

He told his mom.

He told his sister.

It was fine

He was fine

He thought about it for a while, snapped out of it and looked at the kids

“Well? What are you two waiting for? Let’s go!” He yelped, throwing his backpack on his shoulder.

Both the kids squealed and ran out the front door and Lance smiled.

He was fine.

 

* * *

 

Keith awoke with a gasp

He was in the astral plane.

Everything was purple and there were stars under and above him.

He didn’t know for how long he had been asleep, but he knew that it didn’t matter because he needed to find Lance.

He yelled his name and looked around where he was.

Reach out to the red lion he kept in mind.

So he did. He remembered red and their flying and it gave Keith a warm feeling.

“Help me find him.” He commanded the lion.

A deep roar went through the astral plane, filling Keith’s heart with warmth knowing where to go. Straight forward.

He seemed to lose the concept of time in the astral plane, which was a problem because he didn’t have long before Lance would be near death, too sucked into a dreamscape to get out.

But he found him.

He found Lance.

Again, Keith didn’t know how long it took him but all that mattered was that he had found the Red paladin of Voltron.

Lance was sitting on his knees, hands slumped to his side. He was obviously looking down, but his head was covered in white flames and Keith couldn’t see his face clearly.

Now what? Keith thought to himself... or more the red lion.

Find him he heard again in his head. Red was still here.

“But I did.” Keith said almost questioning “How am I supposed to get in his mindscape?” Keith waited for and answer, but he got none.

Red didn’t answer him.

Keith was now on pure, non-magical -slash- extra-terrestrial instinct.

So, he knelt down in front of Lance, subconsciously trying to make out the boy’s face. Keith felt a knot in his stomach invading Lance like he was going to do now. Some part of the Galran was rooting that Lance would be king of his own country with some cute girl on his side. But he knew deep down that that wasn’t what Lance really wanted

Part of him told him to reach for his face. And he held both hands to his cheeks and when nothing happened for a few seconds he closed his eyes and let their foreheads touch. Feeling warmth fill his body. Focusing only on Lance and getting him back.

 

* * *

 

“Tio Lance are we gonna surf today?” Carlos asked while Lance was putting the parasol in the ground.

“I don’t think the waves are high enough yet, buddy” Lance replied. “What we can do.” He said putting all the stuff in the shadow. “Is to see who’s fastest.” He said quickly and ran as fast as he could towards the sea.

The two kids yelped and ran behind him trying to catch up. Lance of course was at the water first, feeling the water splashing against his legs. When Alexi and Carlos got to the water, they tried to splash him wet, but he splashed them back harder and with more water until they stopped, out of breath from running and laughing

Lance loved the water.

It is dangerous yet could be soft at the same time.

He loved the sun shining on the water and the cold feeling of the water the fresh smell.

He loved swimming underwater and seeing the sun shine through the surface. But what was even better was the life inside of the sea, not only the animals, but the plants. All those things made him feel alive. It made his heart fluster every time he somewhat daydreamed about it. It was like all that life in the sea charged him up like a battery. Or how his Abuelita would say, his soul was a part of the seas and was simply home again.

Somehow the water felt different now. Its weird to say, but the water didn’t feel alive. The happy feeling in his heart faded when he touched the water. The smell of the water also felt off and-

It was fine, a physically painful thought suddenly filled his head.

He was fine?

No, he wasn’t.

“Tio, can we go get ice cream?” Alexi asked with puppy eyes, though there was some panic in her voice. And Carlos was just looking at him frustrated.

Lance didn’t recognize the words. He was confused and felt a fog over his mind. Why was he here? Why does thinking hurt? What happened yesterday? Where was his mom?

Why couldn’t he remember?

He was fine

He was so confused.

Everything is fine

Everything felt so fake, the water, the air, his niece. Everything felt off and he knew he was missing something.

The sky. The stars. He missed the stars, why did he miss the stars? It was day.

No, everything was night everything was dark.

But there were no stars. He needed the stars. He needed- something important. Something blue- no red.

Lance!

He was Lance

Why did he think of that?

Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance. Lance. His head hurts, thinking hurts he wanted to go home, away from space away from fighting home he was safe. His head kept hurting. Make it stop. Make it stop.

“Don’t follow in his footsteps.”

“Red suits you.”

“Nice job Lance, that’s why we bring our sharpshooter.”

“Hey Lance, I got your –“

“You have greatness within.”

“Leave the math to –“

Lance screamed in agony, he didn’t feel the sun anymore, not the sea, there was no one there for him. His head felt like it was splitting in two.

“Lance, I’ve been your friend since 5 tell me what’s wrong.”

“I told you I could beat this level.”

“Before I leave I wanted to say-“

“Lance please wake up.”

Lance was able to focus again, now it looked like the sea had turned into the sky, there were clouds moving under his feet. Everything felt calm.

“Lance, please wake up.”

A hand on his face that felt familiar made his body feel warm. He hadn’t felt this hand and skin for so long it felt foreign.

“Veronica?”

He woke up again and felt he was lying in the sand a man -or more of a blurry figure- was standing over him, trying to give him small sips of water to regain consciousness

“- you awake?” Lance understood, he nodded tiredly.

“Can you try to sit?” the man asked, now that Lance was more awake, he could make out the details of the guy. He was Asian, had black hair with some sort of hair floof on the front and he was very muscular. He held his hand on his back as Lance tried to sit again.

“Here,” the man said giving him his pouch of water. “You can’t expect your body to function on a hot day without drinking water.”

“What happened?” Lance was still a little dizzy but drank the water gratefully.

“You fainted, I saw you fall, and you were clearly dehydrated.” He man stood up and stuck his hand out to Lance, accepting it without hesitation.

“Take it easy,” The guy said letting him stand slowly. “try to drink more water, okay? I know it’s not the best drink in the world but it’s extremely warm and if you’re not taking care of yourself its dangerous.”

“Thanks,” Lance gave the man’s (now empty) pouch back to him “Where are my niece and Nephew?”

“Right here,” he said, and Alexi and Carlos came from behind the man to run to their uncle, he kneeled and hugged them.

“We were so worried uncle Lance!” Alexi shouted she looked like she had been crying and Carlos buried his face in Lance’s neck.

“I’m so sorry sweetheart,” Lance hugged them tighter. He was so happy they were here, he was so happy he got to spend time with them. He was so glad he was okay, he got to be okay with his family.

“I seriously cannot thank you enough,” Lance looked up to the man, who was turning away but looked back and gave Lance a smile.

“At least you’re fine now.”

Lance looked at Alexi and Carlos.

Yeah, he was fine.

 

* * *

 

It had been about two hours since Keith went to the astral plane. And Shiro became more worried with the minute both boys didn’t wake up.

Lance’s eye colour had changed only one time now, they were all uncomfortable not able to do anything. Coran had checked in with O’roacha who said he needed to go to the blade and ask the members for forgiveness for their failure.

“Are they going to hurt you?” Shiro had asked.

The Galran was quite for a while. “I do not know, they were not happy hearing about the mission failure. Especially when they heard a paladin is incapable of flying a lion right now.”

There wasn’t fear in his eyes, he was a warrior and ready to take the blame.

“I’ll vouch for you, there was nothing you could have done.” Shiro tried to reason.

“That is kind of you, Black paladin.” O’roacha calmed him “But failing is still failing, it does not matter who’s fault it is.”

Shiro looked down discouraged.

“I hope to be in contact again with you when this is all over,” he said, “Voltron is on this.”

And for the first time he saw O’roacha smile. The Galran nodded and walked over to his pod, not looking back.

“Shiro!” Pidge shouted his name. he turned around to see Keith struggling. Moving like he was uncomfortable and in pain. But when Shiro reached his bedside he had already stopped.

“Check his eyes.” Shiro commanded Pidge worrisome.

Keith’s eyes were rolled to the back of his head, only a bit of his iris visible. Normal, Shiro told himself. But his eyes were not glowing, which he assumed was good. Keith hadn’t been attacked by Haggar. Or put in a dreamscape. Pidge was clearly relieved by this and took a deep breath.

Keith wasn’t trapped in a dreamscape. And he wasn’t in pain. Right?

Truth is; Shiro doesn’t know what is good and what is bad, he doesn’t know why Keith struggled, he doesn’t know if everything will be alright. He doesn’t know what to do if all of this goes wrong.

All he knows is that he doesn’t want to lose his boys.

*

“Nuh-uh,” Lance pointed his finger in Keith’s face “Iron man made _Thanos_ _bleed_ if you think he can’t take on an emo depressed bitch-ass who complains about ´not killing’ while that is the whole solution to literally all of his problems you are wrong.” he said sassy.

How the conversation started, Shiro didn’t want to know. But he did know he wasn’t gonna get his milk without trouble again.

“Batman is the smartest guy on his earth while Tony is just the fifth or something.” Keith argued back, closing the book he was reading to fully invest in this nerdy argument. “He is trained in all the martial arts, doesn’t want to kill people because they are _mentally ill_ and wants give them the care they need, plus he has Robin.”

“One,” Lance started to sum up with his fingers “Robin was _never_ a part of this argument. Also, all those deaths prove Batsy can’t take care of a kid.” Lance mocked “I mean, come one, a _ten year old_? How many of them died again?  And second-”

“You know what McClain?!” Keith stood up from the couch.

“We are not fighting over fictional characters!” Shiro yelled at them from the other end of the room. “Seriously, that’s the dumbest thing I can ever think of”

“Can’t you at least tell Keith that I’m right?” Lance tried to convince Shiro. “Tony stark is better than Bruce Wayne and deserves more than the shit he’s getting”

“Tony Stark is an asshole!” Keith lashed back loudly.

“You take that back!” Lance lashed back even louder.

“Enough!” Shiro quieted the two teens-who-were-acting-like-five-year-olds, enough to scare them. They both looked at him with scared puppy dog eyes. And Shiro just snorted

“You two are little kids I cannot be your dad, please I’m way to young.” he said fake pleading.

“You? Young?! You complained about your back yeste-”

“You have more grey hair than my actual dad don’t even-“

They were both cut off by the alarm.

 _“Paladins the Galra have found us! Get to your lions!”_ Allura said through the speakers.

They all paced out of the room and as Lance had to take a different direction, he quickly turned to them and said, “We’re finishing this argument later.” Pointing smug at the Black and Red paladin.

After battle everyone was too tired to even say goodnight. And they all slept twice their usual scheduled time. Shiro was grateful to not hear them argue anymore and even less as the weeks went by.

But right now, in this moment. One of his paladins dying, the other one in danger

Shiro would give anything to let them finish that argument.

 

* * *

 

Pidge had been sitting next to Lance for the past two hours. Hunk didn’t want to leave Lance’s side, but Pidge had convinced Allura to get him away and she made up some story that she had needed him to make sure Lance’s body wouldn’t shut down. Such as keeping him hydrated and when he woke up he would be hungry, and everyone could guess that food goo isn’t the best when waking up from a coma.

He also needed the distraction. Pidge didn’t know how to handle Hunk’s panic attacks as good as Lance, what she did know was that he calmed down by cooking. So that’s what she made sure he would do.

She was glad that when Keith struggled it wasn’t because he got sucked into a dreamscape.

Something else, maybe. But it wasn’t as bad as Lance. Every few seconds she would check Lance’s vitals, not that anything changed.

Lance, with his stupid one-liners. Stupid jokes, bad at losing.

When Lance would wake up she would make sure they both got past level 36 on their game killbot phantasm. They would try to make cookies and pass out at midnight.

Like when they just got their game and Hunk was so kind to make something to let them play in an advanced castle that would burn the circuits of the game within 0.2 seconds.

They played the whole night, trying to get past level 23 because that one was so difficult, pidge had written a whole plan to win. Lance eventually got through and they were both so exhausted that Lance just let pidge play it easy for the rest of the night.

She must have fallen asleep when she was playing because when she woke up she was tucked in her bed with all the chips, (slightly burned) cookies, soda, and cables cleaned up and Lance completely passed out on the floor.

She wondered if he had any little siblings back then.

Now she knew better, she didn’t know the things Hunk did. He must have taken care of his niece and cousin and nephew maybe.

She never asked, she didn’t think it was essential. Lance would tell her when he wanted.  She was always busy finding her brother and dad she had forgotten about the families of he others.

She wondered how many nights Lance had spent in his bed, looking at old photos, and imagining how their reunion would go.

She knows she did.

But Lance’s whole life was his family, so maybe he made a new one to never lose it. He was close to them, He was there when anyone of them needed them he would cut tension and take responsibility when needed.

But she still mocked him, joked about him, made him feel less than he was.

And she never apologized.

When Lance woke up

She made sure to give him everything he deserved from her for all that time he spent with her.

 

* * *

 

“Has anyone seen Lance?” Shiro asked the paladins at dinner.

There was one seat empty, with warm food goo on the plate not touched.

“I thought I heard him training earlier.” Keith said not looking up.

“Well go get him, his food is getting cold” Shiro told the red paladin.

“Why me?” The boy pleaded, swaying his hand a little too much and got some food on pidge sitting next to him. Who now looked at him frustrated

“Because you’re the first one who spoke up, now go” Shiro commanded, not looking back at him as Keith grumpily walked out of the room

If Lance didn’t come it was his own fault, he should look at the clock more often. And if he didn’t want to eat, he should have just said something to Shiro.

If the idiot wanted to train this late before bed but _complain_ tomorrow, he was gonna get it from Keith.

One problem, Keith was in the training room and Lance wasn’t here.

Then, where was he?

Keith paced to all the rooms past the training room and realized where the Cuban might be,

The bridge.

‘ _Not the first time_ ’ he thought to himself

“And it won’t be the last” he mumbled back to himself.

_“There is no place like the veranda beach.”_

He opened the door and he saw blue planets all floating around the room.

_“My sisters beauty tips.”_

He saw planets they had saved, planets they saw get destroyed, and planets that were still under the Galra’s command.

_“Grandma’s game nights”_

Lance was sitting in the middle of the room, staring at earth. He was wearing his headphones. He didn’t look like he had seen Keith. from a distance Keith could see that the Cubans sleeves had taken up tears, spots darker than his hoodie. Hoping those tears would dry away his sadness.

He wanted to call his name.

He wanted to make him turn around.

He wanted to hug him and tell him that everything would be alright.

He wanted to tell him that he has a family right here.

But Keith wouldn’t understand what Lance is going through.

Keith is an orphan, hadn’t had a dad since he was eight. Lost most memories of him due to trauma. He felt like it wasn’t his place to tell Lance he “understands.”

He can’t connect with people the way Lance can. He can’t look at someone and make them fall in love with his personality. He can’t comfort people, because he never got comforted himself. No one did it for him and he didn’t comfort himself doing the things he loved.

Keith was all alone

It was all he knew

And that’s when he realized it

_It made him a bad friend_

_“You can’t help him”_

_“He doesn’t want your help.”_

_“How do you think he will react? He hates you.”_

And so, Keith turns around.

And closes the door to let Lance sit alone.

Lance deserves better,

Than to talk to the worst friend in Voltron.

Unfortunally, he stumbled upon Coran on his way back.

“hi there number four! Did you find our blue paladin?” he asked rather cheery

“uh- no I didn’t i-“ Keith was stuttering because he didn’t want to say Lance was sulking by the bridge. “I looked everywhere I could think.”

“The bridge too?” The advisor asked suspicious.

“No I didn’t- I don’t know what he could be doing there.”

_Liar_

“I’ll go find him, you go back to the dinner table and get some rest, you look like you need it.” Coran patted Keith on his shoulder

As Keith walked down the hallway, he heard the doors of the bridge open and Coran calling Lance’s name with a calming tone.

It’s what’s best for Lance.

 

* * *

 

Waking up calmly felt unreal for Keith.

Opening his eyes and not feeling like he could die at any moment.

He felt a cool breeze along his chest and he realized he wasn’t wearing his blade of Marmora suit anymore, but only a swim suit.

He was standing on the beach, there were people everywhere, kids playing, dogs barking. How was he ever going to find Lance like this?

“It’s not real, dumbass” he mocked himself, and he realized he could see the people and everything else transparently if he wanted to. That was gonna make it a little bit easier, but the beach was huge, even in real life. Finding Lance was going to be hard, But not impossible.

Okay, first things first. What does Lance love most about the beach? He questioned himself.

“The ocean.” He answered out loud.

So, Keith paced along the shore looking at all the people, all the fake images that Lance made up. Keith realized he recognized some of the faces, Garrison pilots, teachers and most importantly he saw some woman that looked like Ryner but she was human, the same face and eye shape, hair that formed like Ryners actual head but nothing like she was in real life. Like when an actor who played an alien with their makeup off.

Keith remembered some books he had read on dreams when he was around the age of 15, he was haunted by nightmares and wanted to learn lucid dreaming. It hadn’t worked, but that is not the point. In the book the author mentioned that your brain can not make new faces but only remember them, so in a dream you have seen everyone before even if you don’t know their name.

If Keith could make Lance remember all those faces

Maybe he could wake him up like that

 

Walking on the shore took Keith long,

but finally seeing Lance was worth it. They might have been a hundred feet away from each other, but it was clear as day that it was Lance

He was running towards the water, it looked like he was glowing. There were two kids running behind him. And when he reached the water the kids splashed him wet and he did it back.

Lance looked so happy, happier than Keith had seen him in a long time. He recalled Lance almost seemingly glowing when he would talk about his family. His full laugh, the spark in his eyes and the slight dimple in his left cheek. The ugly snorting when he found something funny. All of that was Lance, and all of that was being abused. That happiness was something Lance probably hadn’t felt in a long time.

He almost didn’t want to, but Keith screamed his name, running his direction. trying to get his attention.

Lance seemed to realize something, but he didn’t seem to see him, or that someone was calling him, the glow vanished.

“Lance!” Keith tried to get his attention again but somehow it seemed he never got closer to him and was still in the same spot where he first saw Lance.

Something grabbed Keith and threw him across the shore. Rolling across the sand, swearing he could hear his ribs crack.

Keith got on his knees and bended over cramping his rips, couching up a combination of sand and blood, he looked up to see what had thrown him.

It was Shiro. Shiro was walking slowly to him.

“Well, you don’t belong here, don’t chya’ sweety?” his voices was distorted, he could hear a female voice in Shiro’s voice. One he didn’t recognize. It wasn’t Haggar’s, it was Tayra’s

“Neither do you!” he yelled. Looking up around he realized everything had turned black, there was no sea anymore, no people.

“At least I _can_ comfort him.” She said, which made Keith snap and he yelled running towards Shiro he wanted to attack him but at the last second, he realized that he didn’t have sword. Midst of the moment, he turned it into a punch, He hit him very badly and had no effect because Tayra didn’t even flinch.

_Good job idiot_

Tayra smiled, Launching at him with a strong punch. Keith froze by the aggressive face of his mentor, his brother, his only family. He got hit in the face, very hard.

For a second or 2 he got send dizzy and heard ringing. It was enough for Tayra to grab him by the throat, choking him.

“I swear to the ancients, you’re not going to ruin this.” Tayra said again, with Shiro’s voice under toning the threat.

“Keith! over here!” he heard someone yell, it was a female voice, but he had trouble recognizing where it came from. Seemingly Tayra had heard the same voice because she looked around for a quick moment, loosening her grasp

A quick second was enough for Keith to get loose and managed to kick Tayra away

Until he felt an arm grabbing him and pulling him down, into the ground as if it was water.

Before everything turned white, he saw a face.

Reminding him of Lance.

 

* * *

 

Shiro was sitting next to Keith’s bed, on his chair he had his hands folded in each other. Trying to comfort himself, but it was hard when one hand doesn’t have any natural heat. Sometimes he missed having two human hands but remembering what good he had done with his Galran arm made the loss a little easier. He was a good fighter with his arm and could protect his team because he couldn’t just lose it like the others could lose their bayards.

He wishes he had tabs on Keith and how he was doing, help him. He would have gone in his place if he could but there wasn’t any other way. Shiro hated not knowing what was going on in Lance’s dreamscape.

He kept switching looks from Keith to Lance. He kept looking at both of them breath. Lance was breathing slower than Keith, Keith was breathing faster, and faster, and faster, and Shiro realized he was hyperventilating. His chair fell backwards when he rushed to the kid. He glanced over to Lance and saw he was also struggling to breath.

Shiro hit the alarm.

Keith began coughing and choking, Shiro quickly rolled him on his side and saw there was blood drippling out of his mouth. Making his heart stop.

Keith clenched his stomach as if it was hurting. And from behind Shiro heard Lance making pain noises. Looking behind he saw Lance was in pain and almost looking like he was going to cry.

Looking over to Keith again, he was still coughing blood and curled up in a ball looking in pain.

Pidge was the first one going through the door, rushing to Lances side prying his eyes open to look at the colour. And Shiro tried to comfort Keith. but alas, nothing helped.

They were completely powerless

He looked in horror when Keith’s eyes were open and glowing white for a moment and disappearing just as quick and let out an agony filled moan. From behind, Shiro heard an all familiar scream of anguish coming from the young Cuban.

And everything went silent

The only sound was breathing.

And Shiro sunk to his knees.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my fic  
> I hope to post another chapter in before the next 4 weeks bc i have exams and i'm already stressing.
> 
> My tumblr is: https://blue-s-heart.tumblr.com/ and i will update here


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